A man of his words, a man of character, India captain Rohit Sharma didn’t mince words as he reflected on the team’s horrific 0-3 Test series loss at home against New Zealand. After completely being outplayed by the Kiwis in the first two Tests, India looked to have done enough in the Wankhede encounter but the batters hit self-destruct yet again. Barring Rishabh Pant, no other Indian batter managed to withstand the pressure created by the Kiwi spinners. India captain Rohit Sharma also admitted after the match that his team failed to fire collectively.
“Yeah, absolutely, you know, losing a series, losing a Test is never easy, it’s something that’s not easily digestible,” Rohit said while speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony. “Again, we didn’t play our best cricket, we know and we have to accept. They (New Zealand) did so much better than us. We made a lot of mistakes and we’ll have to accept it. We didn’t put enough runs on the board in the 1st innings (in Bengaluru and Pune) and we were behind in the game, here, we got a 30-run lead, we thought we were ahead, the target was achievable as well, we had to do better though.”
When asked about his own performances, particularly from the attacking style point of view that Rohit displayed throughout the series, he admitted that such things don’t look good when teams don’t win.
“You want runs on the board as well, that’s something that was there in my mind (on his own batting today), it didn’t come off and when it happens, it doesn’t look great. There are certain ideas on my mind when I go to bat, but in this series, it didn’t come off and that’s disappointing for me,” he said.
Rohit was full of praise for Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, the two batters who managed to get some runs on the board in the third Test. But, the Hitman conceded that the feeling of such a defeat is going to hurt him for a long time.
“Those guys showed how to bat on these surfaces (on Pant, Jaiswal and Gill), you’ve got to be ahead and be proactive, we are playing on such pitches in the last 3-4 years, we know how to play (and play well). But this series, it didn’t come off and that’s going to hurt. Also, I wasn’t at my best with both bat and as a captain, that’s something that’ll rankle me. But, we didn’t perform well collectively and that’s the reason for these losses,” Rohit concluded.
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